WEBVTT IT'S AS SIMPLE AS DOWNLOADINGTHE APP.AND THE BEST PART IS IT'S FREE.IT'S THE PHONE APP VERSION OF"WHO WANTS TO BE A MILLIONAIRE?">> ANSWER QUESTIONS TO WIN CASH.WALTER: PLAYERS HAVE 10 SECONDSTO ANSWER A MULTIPLE-CHOICEQUESTION.GET IT RIGHT, YOU MOVE ON.GET IT WRONG AND DON'T ANSWER INTIME, AND YOU ARE OUT THERE IN-- OUT.THE QUESTIONS START OUT EASY.THE GAME SHOW HOST ISENTERTAINING.>> HE IS A GREAT HOST.WHEN YOU WANT TO KNOW THEANSWER, HE IS, LIKE, BUILDING UPTHAT TENSION.HE'S GREAT.WALTER: IT IS PLAYED EVERY DAYAT 6:00 P.M. PACIFIC.ALL OF US OUR FIRST TIMEPLAYING.ANY QUESTION THAT IS LIMITED'S ALARGE NUMBER OF LAYERS IS ASAVAGE QUESTION.THAT HAPPENED EARLY ON IN OURGAME.THREE OF US WERE OUT.THE APP ALLOWS YOU TO PLAY ALONGIF YOU ARE ILLUMINATED.TONIGHT, 78 PEOPLE WON.WE ALL SPLIT THE PRIZE MONEY.IF NO ONE WINS, IT ROLLS OVER TOTHE NEXT JACKPOT.THE LARGEST POT HAS BEEN 18,000DOLLARS.

It's the newest app taking the country by storm: HQ is a live game show where contests can win cash prizes of thousands of dollars.

Anyone can play, and it's free. It's being compared to the game show "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire."

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"Tonight's edition of HQ - the live trivia game show you play on your phone where you answer questions to win cash," announced host Scott Rogowsky.

Players have just 10 seconds to answer a multiple-choice question with three possible answers. Get it right, you move on. Get it wrong or don't answer within the 10-second time frame, and you're out. If you get all 12 questions right, you win the jackpot.

Sound easy? The questions start off easy and get increasingly hard -- like really hard.

"Which of these are a popular pizza topping? Pepperoni, peanut butter or passion fruit?" Rogowsky asked Thursday.

"He's a great host ... when you want to know the answer, he's like building up that tension, and you're like just tell me the answer," said Sophia Neverov, a student at Sacramento State.

The game is played every day at 6 p.m. PST and at noon PST Monday through Friday.

KCRA rounded up a small group of strangers Thursday night. For all of us, it was our first time playing.

Mason Silva/KCRA

Any question that eliminates a large number of players is called a "savage question" and that happened early on in our game.

"Which of these poetic forms are five lines long? Limerick, Sonnet or Haiku," Rogowsky asked.

Three of the four people playing with us were out on that question. The app allows you to still play along after you're eliminated, but you just can't win the prize money.

There is only one way to get life lines, and that is to refer people to the game. For everyone you introduce, you get one lifeline, and you can only use one per game. When your friends download the app, tell them to type in your screen name in the referral code box.

Half a million people started the game Thursday evening, and only 78 players got all 12 questions right, so they split the prize money. If no one wins, it rolls over into the next jackpot. The largest cash prize was $18,000.

HQ Trivia was designed by the creators of Vine -- Rus Yusupov and Colin Kroll. It's been reported that they plan to someday increase the prize money to $1 million.